Abbott says his team is governing well

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has told his coalition colleagues he believes his team is responding intelligently to the demands of government, including the escalating tensions with Indonesia.

Mr Abbott addressed a joint coalition party room meeting in Canberra on Tuesday, telling MPs and senators that his government is "purposefully, calmly and methodically" getting on with the business it was elected to do.

He said the government had had a good two weeks and was "intelligently responding to the exigencies of the day", making a fleeting reference to the tensions between Australian and Indonesia over spying claims.

Colleagues praised Mr Abbott's recent visit to Sri Lanka for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

Mr Abbott told the meeting he has "no interest in taking sides in fights in other countries", referring to his decision not to raise human rights concerns with the Sri Lankan government.

Mr Abbott said the Labor party was consumed with one question: was Kevin Rudd or Julia Gillard a worse prime minister?

He said he had settled on Mr Rudd because he did not even resign from parliament properly, subjecting the people of Griffith to three months without a member of parliament before a by-election can be held.

Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss also spoke about regional infrastructure funding, saying he had no intention of delivering on all Labor's promises.

However the government would conduct a "proper merit analysis" of individual Labor projects and may proceed with some, he said.